We have favorite Mexican spots, subdivided by occasion, food,
mood and company. There are fancy places and dives, street food and
Sonoran dogs. Places where you can drink. Places where you eat
standing up.

For the first time, players watch film of opponents and eat a
team meal before home games. Opposing stats and scouting reports
are posted in the locker room.

"The culture is different," said senior forward Brady Lefferts,
who leads the team with 21 goals.

The messy divorce between Golembiewski - who threatened legal
action after the campus recreation program and his own players
reorganized the club team and took it from his control - has yet to
turn nasty.

In April, when I sat outside heated meeting between he and UA
officials, I would have bet otherwise.

Slugocki said the team has yet to hear from Golembiewski, who
won 634 games and owns the "Icecats" trademark. The UA ran afoul of
the trademark once, mistakenly calling the Wildcats by their former
name in a publication.

Associate vice president of student affairs Frank Farias - who
said he "would be very naïve to think (Golembiewski) would just
accept" the April move - called the new club setup "wonderful."

He anticipates the Cats will break even. They have a $250,000
budget, paid for by the UA, but don't plan on spending it all,
Nicholls said.

Nicholls, who once served as Wyoming's football graduate
assistant under former UA assistant Dana Dimel, said a lot of his
job "has been relationship building, and relationship
rebuilding."

The team started a youth program, complete with
"Adopt-a-Wildcat" programs connecting players to kids.

There's still work to do. While installing a fast-paced offense,
Hogan has seen his team go 9-9-1; last year's Icecats went
14-15.

Saturday's 7-2 loss to ASU was the Wildcats' worst loss of the
season; two players from each team were ejected. Arizona has lost
its last 20 Cactus Cup games to ASU.

Still, Hogan thinks he can return the team - albeit with a new
name - to the postseason for the second time in nine years. The
Wildcats are ranked No. 16 in one American College Hockey
Association computer poll, No. 17 in another, and have three weeks
off before facing San Diego State on Jan. 6 at TCC.

Slugocki, a captain who helped choose the new coach, said
"there's not much in the program that hasn't been improved" under
Hogan.

"None of us have been to the national tournament," Slugocki
said. "We want to get there."

When they do, I know a place here to celebrate. They have great
flautas.

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